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Jan A. Staessen, MD, PhD; Tatiana Kuznetsova, MD; Katarzyna Stolarz, MD

JAMA. 2003;289:2420-2422.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Blood pressure (BP) is the most consistent and powerful predictor of stroke, such that hypertension is causally involved in nearly 70% of all stroke cases.¹ Worldwide, stroke is second only to ischemic heart disease as a leading cause of death.² In a quantitative overview of 61 cohort studies with more than 1 million enrolled subjects,³ the Prospective Studies Collaboration demonstrated that small gradients in systolic or diastolic BP account for sizable differences in cardiovascular outcomes. Along similar lines, several recently published outcome trials in hypertensive patients or patients at high cardiovascular risk proved that reductions in systolic BP as small as 1 to 3 mm Hg decrease the relative risk of stroke by as much as 20% to 30%.⁴

Despite the consistency of findings among observational cohort studies³ and outcome trials in hypertension,⁴ the geographic heterogeneity in the patterns . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Study Coordinating Centre, Hypertension Unit, Department of Molecular and Cardiovascular Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

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